Reign­ing cham­pi­ons Guyana Ama­zon War­riors booked their spot in the 2024 Re­pub­lic Bank Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) fi­nal by in­flict­ing an eight-wick­et de­feat over Bar­ba­dos Roy­als in Prov­i­dence, Guyana on Fri­day night. 

Im­ran Tahir won the toss and de­cid­ed to field first, him­self and his fel­low bowlers work­ing as a well-oiled unit to re­strict and run through the Roy­als who even­tu­al­ly post­ed a to­tal of 148 runs. 

The Roy­als' bat­ting card was full of starts but no one grabbed the in­nings by the scruff of the neck and went on to post a de­ci­sive score as wick­ets con­tin­ued to fall. Quin­ton de Kock chipped a sim­ple caught and bowled chance back to Gu­dakesh Motie and Ro­mario Shep­herd picked up the key wick­et of Rah­keem Corn­wall with a re­viewed lbw de­ci­sion that went the War­riors way. 

Corn­wall was look­ing in fine form and the re­ver­sal of the on-field de­ci­sion put the Roy­als un­der re­al pres­sure that they nev­er re­al­ly re­cov­ered from. 

The War­riors' bowl­ing line-up shared the wick­ets be­tween them, Shep­herd fin­ish­ing with 3/35 and Moeen Ali once again bowl­ing a de­ci­sive spell with the ball in hand, spear­ing in 13 dot balls and pick­ing up two wick­ets to end with 2/24 for his ef­forts. Some chaot­ic run­ning in the scrab­ble for late runs al­so saw two run outs as the Roy­als in­nings splut­tered to a close. 

The War­riors set about the to­tal with con­fi­dence and man­aged to win the match and se­cure their place in Sun­day's fi­nal in­side 15 overs. Rah­man­ul­lah Gur­baz and Moeen Ali flayed the ball to all parts at the top of the or­der, Gur­baz de­part­ing for a rapid 40 off 18 balls with four six­es and Ali fin­ish­ing un­beat­en on 44 off 35 balls to cap a fine all-round per­for­mance in a cru­cial match. 

Shai Hope made a classy half-cen­tu­ry be­fore be­ing yorked by Ra­mon Sim­monds with just two runs need­ed for vic­to­ry, Play­er of the Match Moeen Ali clip­ping the de­ci­sive sin­gle off his pads just a cou­ple of balls lat­er to land the telling blow. 

The win­ning run struck with 33 balls left un­used saw the Bar­ba­dos Roy­als ti­tle hopes left in tat­ters and Guyana Ama­zon War­riors cruis­ing to a com­pre­hen­sive vic­to­ry that gives them an op­por­tu­ni­ty to land back-to-back CPL ti­tles. Saint Lu­cia Kings lie in wait in what promis­es to be an en­thralling end to the 2024 com­pe­ti­tion. 

SUM­MARISE SCORES

Bar­ba­dos Roy­als 148 in 20 overs (David Miller 36, Al­ick Athanaze 26; Ro­mario Shep­herd 3-35, Moeen Ali 2-24) lost to Guyana Ama­zon War­riors 149/2 in 14.3 overs (Shai Hope 56, Moeen Ali 44*, Rah­man­ul­lah Gur­baz 40; Ra­mon Sim­monds 1-26) by 8 wick­ets.